Word.ws English Dictionary

desterilize

desterilize verb: to contaminate (medical equipment, etc.) so that it is no longer sterile.

Verb

desterilize (third-person singular simple present desterilizes, present participle desterilizing, simple past and past participle desterilized)

  1. (transitive) To contaminate (medical equipment, etc.) so that it is no longer sterile.
    • The devices were explanted postmortem or during an upgrade intervention, but also devices that were accidentally desterilized or were improperly sealed were included.2015 August 12, Raluca Şoşdean et al., “Safety and feasibility of biventricular devices reuse in general and elderly population – a single-center retrospective cohort study”, in Clinical...
  2. To carry out a monetary process that is the reverse of sterilization.

Forms of desterilize

third-person singular presentdesterilizes
present participledesterilizing
past participledesterilized
pastdesterilized

Origin of desterilize

From de- + sterilize.

Questions about desterilize

What does desterilize mean?
Desterilize means to contaminate (medical equipment, etc.) so that it is no longer sterile.
What part of speech is desterilize?
Desterilize is a verb.
What is the past tense of desterilize?
The past tense of desterilize is desterilized.

Words near desterilize in the dictionary

  1. destereotypes
  2. destereotyping
  3. desterilise
  4. desterilization
  5. desterilizations
  6. desterilize
  7. desterilized
  8. desterilizes
  9. desterilizing
  10. desthiobiotin
  11. desthiobiotinylated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: desterilize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “desterilize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/desterilize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.